Thursday, June 24, 2004
Jealousy fuels fatal chase, police say
Woman allegedly
chased her ex and his new girlfriend
It began when a young woman spotted her ex-boyfriend in a car with a new girlfriend outside a McDonald's in East Oakland.
Enraged, Laura Medina,
r
21, of Oakland and her Buick full of girlfriends chased the small white Chevrolet Cavalier onto Interstate 580, ramming it a dozen times, before pursuing the car onto the streets of Castro Valley, where they gave it a final deadly smash, police say.
The Cavalier spun out of control and crashed into a ro
w of parked cars, killing the new girlfriend, Michelle Dickerson, 18, of Manteca.
Police say she had been one of four people inside her stepfather's car.
Dickerson, who relatives said had been screaming for the driver of the Cavalier to stop, died at 7:44 p.m. Tuesday of major head trauma at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, the same hospital where she was born.
Medina, a receptionist and mother of a 6-year-old boy, left the scene after the crash but surrendered to Alam
eda County sheriff's investigators about 2 p.m. Wednesday, accompanied by her family and Hayward attorney Fred Remer.
The tearful Medina, who has no criminal record, was arrested on suspi
cio
n of murder and declined to speak to authorities, said Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek.
Dickerson's grieving family said Wednesday that they were grappling with the senselessness of it all.
"I'm just so despondent about the whole thing. I can't believe that this even happened over something so stupid," said Dickerson's
mother, Dolly Babcock, 43, of Tracy.
Her husband, Bruce Babcock, 42, the slain woman's stepfather, agreed, saying, "It's just a waste of a life over something stupid as jealousy, or rage, or whatever. It's inexcusable. Bad decisions were made. What were people thinking?"
Remer said his client was remorseful but denied that she intended to harm or kill anyone. Medina did not know Dickerson, he said.
"This i
s one of the most severe types of accidents she could possibly have, an accident brought on by some rather erratic driving," Remer said. "It was an ugly accident."
Acco
rding t
o Sheriff's Detective Greg Swetnam, two carloads of people met by chance at the McDonald's at the Eastmont Mall at 73rd Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard about 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Medina spotted her ex-boyfriend, whose name was not released, with Dickerson and became angry, authorities said.
The two cars sped onto eastbound Interstate 580 at up to 90 mph, the Buick in pursuit, Dudek said. The Buick ramme
d the Cavalier about a dozen times, "doing the wild thing on the freeway," Swetnam said.
The cars left the freeway at Redwood Road in Castro Valley and turned onto the 2300 block of Lessley Avenue, where Medina again rammed the Cavalier, causing it lose control and slam into several parked cars, authorities said.
"We saw the (female) passenger get out of the car and st
art screaming, "Get her out, get her out!" said Angela Coleman, 19, who lives on Lessley Avenue. The girl later said, "We're going to get those b*tches. They we
re chasing
us."
Coleman said she rushed to the crumped Cavalier and found a lifeless Dickerson in the backseat, her lips blue. Dickerson's boyfriend was in a daze next to her and kept trying to touch and shake his wounded girlfriend, Coleman said.
"I think that's horrible they chased the people down," Coleman said. "The girl in the back probably didn't even want to be in the car."
During the chase, Dickerson and a girlfriend in the car "were screaming
for them to stop, that they want out now," Bruce Babcock said. "The driver refused to stop and kept on going until (the occupants of the chasing car) rammed them and all hell broke loose."
But Remer disputed that his client intentionally rammed the Cavalier, saying "there may have been some
contact" between the two cars as the Cavalier, its driver trying to elude the Buick, weaved on the freeway. The defense attorney said the Cavalier wasn't rammed in Ca
stro Valley bu
t instead lost control after hitting a speed bump.
Three girls in the Buick were arrested near the scene and the car was recovered, but Medina was nowhere to be found, authorities said.
Michelle Dickerson had lived in Tracy since she was 5 years old but moved four months ago to Manteca to live with her father, Daniel Dickerson. She went to Lake Tahoe last weekend to attend her father's wedding.
